How have the performed in the NBA draft?

Let's face it, the Dallas Mavericks don't have a good track record when it comes to the draft. Since 1980, the Mavericks rank in the bottom third of the league in the advance metric value over replacement player, or VORP, for picks in the first two rounds in the NBA draft. Click on team logo to see year-by-year VORP for each corresponding team.

What's a VORP? A player's career Value Over Replacement Player (VORP) is a productivity metric calculated with performance numbers and playing time. Since it's a career metric, players new to the league tend to have a lower score. While no single metric is perfect, it's a popular statistic used to summarize a player's contribution. Read more about VORP.

If it wasn't for Jason Kidd, the Mavericks’ first-round pick in 1994, they'd rank even lower. Kidd had a career VORP of 78.2. As a comparison, Michael Jordan's VORP was 104.4.

But what about Dirk Nowitzki? In a deal that typifies the NBA's draft-day dealings, Nowitzki (66 VORP) was drafted ninth by the Milwaukee Bucks in 1998 and then traded to the Mavericks along with Pat Garrity for Robert Traylor. Read more about Dirk’s draft.

These sorts of deals are common on draft day. In 2016, there were nine draft-day trades that included 15 of the drafted players switching teams.

Determining which draft class was the best depends on what you're looking for, but it would be hard to rival 1984.

Six of the top 10 players drafted in 1984 had a VORP score of 30 or more, including Hakeem Olajuwon (77.1), Michael Jordan, and Charles Barkley (93.5).

Finding the best classExplore the NBA draft pick-by-pick. Touch each bar to view the selection, the team that drafted them and their VORP score. Below, search by individual players to see who was drafted after them but finished with a better VORP score.